We awake in our little studio place around 5.30am (eek!) and as if by magic, there is the water. We watch the sun come up from bed and scrounge for something to eat for breakfast – we drink apple poppas and coffee and eat muesli bars and cheese fish shaped crackers happily in bed. We are not good parents, but luckily we are the only parents Elwood has had so he has nothing to compare us to. Ha!

By 8.30 the temperature is warm, but not boiling, but it is so steamy. Noah attempts a shave but his electric razor has finally died. But he has to shave on the first day of beach holiday otherwise when he does shave his chin will be vibrant white. He has tried this look, and it does not work for him that well. So he attempts a wet shave, the second only in his life! It takes him almost an hour

. It turns out the razors we bought can't deal with industrial amounts of facial hair, so he trims it all with his trusty nail scissors before a circus of foaming, shaving, burning sensations, rinsing off foam, surveying the damage, and foaming again ensues. I am not normally very patient by I am enthralled watching this complex routine; it is a David Attenborough worthy performance. Finally, Noah appears red in the face (and neck) and slightly exhausted from his ordeal. Despite this, there was no bloodshed – so we are marking this down as 'success’. I have never seen him this clean shaven before. He looks 16.

Every couple of minutes I go back to the window and look at the sea, the sky and the sand. I have to look through palm tree to take in the view. I tell Noah about 20 times that the beach is just there, as I can’t quite believe it. And then, a rainbow appears though the palm trees and over the water. Hawaii – we are so in love with you already, I cannot even describe it.

We head over to the backpacker / reception to say hello and give them some money. We pick up some snorkels, goggles and fins and we are beach bound. About 30 seconds later, we are on the beach. There is just one other family there. Elwood plays on the rocks and jumps in the water

. He is over the moon happy. I lounge around a bit, razz around the rocks with Woody and then snorkel. The water is crystal clear. It is shallow for about 2 metres and then drops deep. And there are a few rocks to one side of the beach. The second I put the goggles on I see colourful fish swimming amongst the rocks. I cannot believe it. They are just there! Elwood puts his goggles on and takes a look. His face when he comes up is priceless. He is smiling, but it is like his whole face is smiling not just his mouth. He is beaming and he is also so surprised. I am not sure what he was expecting but it was not that. He goes for another look and still can’t believe it. It is quite amazing when you put goggles on somewhere like this. It is like a whole parallel universe is revealed. It is so quite, and so calm, and so pretty. It is hard to smile whilst wearing a snorkel, but I am pretty sure I did!

It gets hot so quickly and by about 10.30 it is quite hot and we know we should leave, but don’t leave for another hour. Noah pops to a grocery store and we are soon eating cheese and salad sandwiches and doing our best crazy people grins.

It is too hot to go out and we are all exhausted, and Elwood looks super tired, so we all watch Brother Bear 2

. Elwood thinks this is just fabulous. I fall asleep, and then Noah falls asleep – Elwood does not fall asleep. We read stories and make up stories and just have fun until the sun is less full-on, and then we are back at the beach for more of the same. Swimming, snorkelling and messing about. By this point, the beach was full of families with little ones and it was so, so great. I felt very jealous of the people who were locals. We had the most wonderful couple of hours before heading home to feed Woody before he passed out. Epic fail here. We bathed woody whilst we cooked dinner, he sat at the table and said please can I just go to sleep he left the table and was asleep in minutes. Poor thing, he was absolutely broken.

So, Noah and I left to drink wine, eat ice lollies, and look over photos from a super day. We feel so chilled, but also so thrilled at the same time that we are here, doing this. This is such an amazing place and our little family is very happy here. I know there are plenty of things to see, but for now – just us and the beach is enough for us. It’s so much more than we could have wished for.

Good night from beautiful Hawaii (with water lapping in the background)